Sports

GPRC hosting women’s volleyball nationals this week

Randy Vanderveen/Special to the Herald-Tribune
Brian Parlee, a maintenance technician at GPRC, secures railings onto floor seating being set up in preparation for this weekend's CCAA Morris Financial Group/Manulife Women's Volleyball Championships earlier this week. The tournament begins Thursday afternoon and runs through Saturday night with the best college teams in the country facing off for the title.

For quite some time the Wolves have known their moment to shine would come.

The GPRC women’s volleyball team will open up the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association women’s volleyball national championship tournament against the

Douglas College Royals on Thursday night at GPRC.

Game time is set for 8 p.m.

Wolves head coach Chantelle LaMotte is not looking beyond the winners of the PACWEST conference because the coach knows her club will have to face strong teams in every match.

“They’re going to be a good team but any team in this (tournament) stands a chance to get a medal,” LaMotte said.

The Royals are the No. 1 seed on the ‘B’ side of the group while the Wolves are ranked No. 4 on the ‘B’ side. The Royals also finished in the top spot when the last CCAA national ranking came out Feb. 28.

“We’ve watched video (on the Royals) about three times in the last week,” Grande Prairie native and Wolves outside hitter Megan Koch added. “We have really studied them (while) trying to (formulate) a gameplan.”

Normally, the GPRC gym has the majority of its seating on the east side but it’s been reconfigured for seating on all four sides. No doubt the sightlines and distractions will be a different animal when the gym starts to fill up as the tournament progresses.

The Wolves have tried to be proactive for that different reality.

Koch was asked how practice has gone since the last time the team played a competitive game, which was a two-game split with the NAIT Ooks on Feb. 16 and 17.

“It’s been going really well,” Koch said. “The gym has been set up since last Friday and we’ve been practicing every day. The girls are getting really excited. The practices have been awesome in this gym as we’ve gotten the feel for it.”

Wolves libero Mckenna Wolstenholme was asked previously what the players responsibilities were in the build up to the big event.

The former Peace Wapiti Academy volleyball player noted the squad had to be in the gym, early, ready to go for practice. They also had the added responsibility to keep themselves in playing shape during the two-week break. In other words, change nothing.

Did the players manage to keep their end of the bargain as the coaches have in the layoff?

“The girls are all dialed in and focused on what’s going on right now,” LaMotte said. “They’re just ready to get started ... the event is finally here and it’s definitely exciting.”

The eight-team tournament kicks off Thursday afternoon at 1 p.m. when the Lakeland College Rustlers face the Mount Saint Vincent University Mystics; the Vancouver Island University Mariners will play the Andre-Laurendeau Boomerang at 3 p.m.; the Humber College Hawks will collide with the Garneau Elans at 6 p.m.